Getting the grades yet feeling like a failure.

Hello. I got the grades for Leicester's Computer Science, yet I wanted to try somewhere better. All of my friends, everyone I knew were getting into the best universities, like Birmingham, Nottingham, and Sheffield, most of them didn't get the grades, yet they were still let in. None of the friends I made at Leicester's open day had it as their firm choice, and it was either their insurance or as a filler for their 5 choices. One of my school friends has a little bit of a sharp tongue, but he sort of mocked me when he said I applied to Leicester and said it was his "safe choice". He's going to do Computer Science at Sheffield.

I applied for Leicester back in January, but my heart knew I wanted to go somewhere else. For months, I was researching other universities hoping I could go through by clearing. When the holiday came I was set on Nottingham. Once results day came, I managed to achieve A*BB, I was unfortunately 6 marks off from achieving an A in Computer Science A-Level I worked really hard, and I was very confident I could do it, and I wanted to surprise my family so I was quite disappointed. I got home and applied for Nottingham's computer science.

The person on the phone took my UCAS ID, grades, and my details. They told me my grades were great and were enough to give me the offer, and just before he was about to give me the offer he told me the last place had been taken and my heart just sank. For the whole of the 17th and the 18th, I was just calling universities non-stop and all just got the same answer, "no places" I've rung the same universities just in case and to no avail. Every phone call just hurts more, they don't (well they can't) ask for my grades, and I'm just shot down immediately. I asked my teachers for help and they told me to consider a gap year, which kind of upsets me because I was really set on university this year. I could go to Leicester, but since January I've looked so hard at other universities, the idea of me going to Leicester just feels like a complete loss. I've felt so mediocre my entire life, and I really wanted to try to get into a top university and finally give myself some sort of pride. I've never been the best at really anything and I tried so hard in my A-Levels to get there. I know I have the skills and the qualifications to get into some of these universities, but I just keep getting shot down, and it really feels like I'm just set for a full life of mediocrity. I just don't know what to do.

(PS: This is not meant to be some sort of smug brag post at all. I'm sorry if it looks that way.)